vendredi 30 septembre 2011

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Let’s attempt a neologism: "MultiScreenTasking". Such factorization describes the new situation of television. TV viewers do many things
at the same time with many screens. Much of multitasking involving TV is also multiscreening, it is also transmedia.

Mise à jour 5 janvier 2012

Multitasking
It has always
been an issue with the media: listening to the radio while reading a magazine,
driving a car, having breakfast, doing homework... or… reading a paper
while listening to the radio, to music, etc. TV, in turn, developed a new kind
of multitasking: reading the TV guide, knitting or having dinner in front of the TV.
Multitasking means putting more activities in a given time period, simultaneusly. Two or more activities in
one unit of time. Does this mean sharing attention between two activities or
doubling attention capacity? Marketing prefers TV only; or Web or
magazine only, assuming that multitasking allocates less time to
commercials. Of course, there might be a dominant task and a secondary one. TV viewing has always involved multitasking, but this multitasking activity has only been measured by declarative surveys (time budget).

Multiscreening
Ithappens when people look at two or
more screens at the same time and when messages resonate from one screen to another. Of course, there might be a dominant screen
and an ancillary screen. TV, laptop, tablet, smartphone. ebook: screens of
all sizes generate a multiscreen
experience. TV is intensified, completed,
explained, explored by another screen, smaller but more connected, with
interactive capacities thanks to apps: a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet
(iPad). And this seems to be good for advertising; according to a Google/Nielsen/CBS study, it increases awareness and likability.

Transmedia?
Transmedia is what happens when a story (as in storytelling) is spreading beyond one single media, generally beyond one single screen, beyond one single platform. It might increase engagement for people who are following the story from one platform to another. In such a case, media are less simultaneous and there is almost no multitasking.Why and how to MultiScreenTask? Social TV is the thing this year!

First and foresmost, TV MultiScreenTasking means going social with Facebook,
Twitter or Google+: social TV viewing called sometimes "Facebookisation of television". See, for examples, Tunerfish, fav.tv, i.TV, SnappyTV, Into-Now (bought by Yahoo!), Yap.TV Social TV Guide, SocialGuide, Clipsync, etc. Comcast is testing a Facebook app for cable TV, Squrl, personal IPG, integration with social networks.
TV is not an isolated media anymore: it is less and less uniquely family. The TV experience is extended beyond home, beyond kids and parents (“audience conjointe”, TF1). It is enlarged to include your "friends". Instead of passive TV audience, marketing deals with active viewers. TV was a mass media, multiscreentasking transforms it into a massive personal media.
TV was already pretty much "social" at its beginning (Cf. Dinah Washington, the "Queen of the Blues", 1953, "TV is the thing this year"), but that is another story ;-) !

Puts TV viewers on TV: YouToo, which claims to be "the first social TV network", allows people to show off. "Be on TV", "Be Seen on TV", "Be social about TV": the three commandments for multiscreentasking TV! "Sign up to be a star"says TV Dinner!

What kind of analytics do we need for multiscreentasking? Do we need audience measurement for each of the screens? Probably not: instead of audience (passive by definition), these companion apps bring actions. Actions speak for themselves. One needs new kinds of tools to analyse conversations and sentiments about programs (see Trendrr, for instance), one needs new kinds of tools to analyse viewing acts (as in "speech acts"). Multiscreentasking does more than increase pure and simple frequency: it increases not only the number but also the density of impressions (acceleration effect).

How is attention shared between
screens? The math of attention can be estimated, since only one sense is at
play, vision. What is the path of the eyes between screens? We could draw screen graphs, modelize the dynamics of actions: a new kind of social graphs.

Note also that

The living room wall could become a huge screen: NDS Surfaces brings multiscreentasking to a new dimension. One screen for
a major TV program and many other screens on a wall where one can
watch, at the same time, news, weather, interactive widgets, OTT apps, etc. The viewer can change the size of the different screens with the remote (tablet).

TV programs are usually divided in
scripted and unscripted programs: the unscripted part is now on another screen,
personalized.

Multiscreentasking is hyper
engagement (hyper activity?); it does not affect our downtime, but it might
affect our opportunity to daydream while watching TV. And daydreaming is probably where
ideas, new decisions, creativity come from ...

Comments about TV (TV Genome data) can be used by advertisers or TV networks (cf. bluefin Labs)

According to McLuhan's classification of media, TV was "cool"; is multiscreentasking making it a "hot" media?

And to go even further: people used to talk to their TV set (loud "dialog" or interior speech, "sous-conversation"); with multiscreentasking, they do more than just talk, they actually do something to the TV. A new behavioral psychology of engagement is to be invented.

How about radio? Could Nielsen's PPM play a role in a cross-platform strategy?

lundi 19 septembre 2011

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Walmart is the largest multinational retailer in the world (4,000 stores in the U.S., 200 in China). Digital marketing is a challenge for such a company with mostly lower and middle class clients. Walmart cannot - will not -give up digital media. How will a company whose core of business is mass market (FMCG) break away from mass media. How will the transition take place? The creation of Walmart Labs in Silicon Valley (not far from Googleplex) in April 2011 is a visible sign of a decisive change.
Walmart faces three different and interconnected challenges:Updated April 30, 2012

From DVD to VOD

Sam's Club app for iPhone

Walmart was known as a major in-store retailers of DVD's. In order to remain in the market, given the recent evolution of VOD - from DVD to streaming (see Blockbuster) -Walmart acquired Vudu in 2010 and entered the streaming-media business, competing with iTunes, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Now it offers more than 10,500 episodes for VOD.
By the way, Walmart shut down its online music store in August.

From DVD to the Cloud

In April 2012, Walmarts launches "Disc-to-Cloud". People bring their DVDs to their local Walmart store. They pay a small fee and then can access their content stored in the cloud through any device.

From Walmart TV to Smart Network and digital signage

Little by little, the in-store TV network, launched in 1997 and operated by PRN,went digital. From satellite broadcasting to IP network, from TV sets hanging high over shoppers' heads to flat screens installed at eye level in the middle of products (zone specific, endcaps or category screens). Although they steal part of the show from the products (as those of 3Gtv), reducing the facing, screens are here to sell: they support the marketing at the Point Of Sale (POS) digital displays. The message needs to be clear, concise, simple, efficient. Over the last 15 years in-store marketing has gone from TV to display, following the Web and its logic. It is not TV anymore, it is digital signage. Walmart went from TV viewers to shoppers, from audience (30s spots and contacts collected by intercept surveys to build GRPs) to recommendations, conversions and purchases. The next step will establish a proven relationship between what people watch and what they buy: sales lift pricing. Online and offline problems - and solutions - converge: capping, attribution management, branding, ROI, mobile payment, etc.

Smartphones and in-store marketing

Shoppers can use their smartphone for shopping, making lists, couponning, comparing prices, collecting product information (barcode, etc.), looking for products (mapping the stores).

Walmart tests the water at Sam's Club with an app: according to a survey, members suggest using smartphones as membership cards (loyalty cards), for viewing purchase history, discounts, etc.
To go further into digital, Walmart bought Kosmix (social media, April 2011) and seems to be testing Shopycat, an app using social profiles to make recommendations.
Kosmix is known for a platform called "Social Genome" which analyzes purchase and surfing data to improve personalization and recommendations. In September, Walmart acquired OneRiot which will become part of Walmart Labs. OneRiot describes itself as a "Social Targeting Engine" developing a "Social Geo Census Database". Later, Walmart bought three startups specialized in mobile marketing and retail: Small Society, Grabble and Set Direction.
Along the same lines and at the same time, Walmart has invested in two large Chinese e-commerce companies (B2C), Yihaodian (于1号店) and 360buy.
Recently, Wallmark launched a localized Facebook app, "My Local Walmart". Customers can download a a store map and receive news concerning their local store: events; savings, etc.
In March 2012, Walmart bought Social Calendar, a Facebook app (birthday reminders, virtual greetings, etc.).

Get on the shelf: @WalmartLabs has launched a contest in order to determine which items should be available on the Walmart shelves, crowd sourcing suggestions for product listing. People vote with videos.

To conclude, for the time being: Walmart going digital opens (or reopens) four major issues:

EDLP strategies (Every Day Low Price) and/or member cards (for personalized EDLP, "EDLP for me"): which is best and when?

Online and offline strategies, online and offline data. Online marketing is now in line with store marketing, both kinds of data can be merged. At Walmart, e-commerce is no longer independant from offline commerce. Since September, online commerce reports to offline store management.

Brands promote products for free: they only pay when customers buy their product

Links to all loyalty cards that the customers register

Remarks

Ubiquity of the smartphone and apps, used in all moments of our life. When it comes to shopping, apps may become more important than the Web. In Europe, more and more mobile subscribers access online retail sites, especially in U.K. (9,2% of them, according to comScore).

Wonderful data provided by these apps! All the Ws in one single place: Who, Where, When, What, Why. Data about highly "engaged" people : this is not audience anymore, not spectacle, but action. This is what Google calls the "Zero Moment of Truth" (ZMOT). The data is extremely sensitive: advertisers and planners will have to use it carefully, respectfully or else.

Who: a phone number, loyalty cards or not

When: rhythm of visits. Always up-to-date.

Where: not only the geo localization of the store (store locator, see also Zoomingo), but also where in the store (the aisle)

What people are buying, which coupons they are redeeming. Much richer than any demos.

In the U.S. this threatens an important source of revenue for regional newspapers which carry lots of inserts with coupons in their Sunday edition.

vendredi 2 septembre 2011

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There is an app for everything, we all know that. Why not an app to promote the new fall preview schedule? This is just what CBS did for the iPad. Pauley Perrette from "NCIS" is the MC and presents 5 shows: 2 dramas and 3 comedy series (cf. infra).
Everything you need to know in order to follow and talk about the fall schedule and more: casts, photos, videos, bios, social media (tweets) for sharing (Facebook), etc. There are previews, ":15 Sneak Peeks"and "Behind the Scenes" videos. And even a game, "Memory Challenge", with cast cards to match (not so easy). Of course, you can access a store (mugs, T-shirts, etc.).
The free app connects and integrates with the iPad calendar, so you are sure not miss a program.
This is a big improvement over what we used to have on the net and what we still have in Europe with paper TV guides. There is a lesson to be learned for magazines. Not to mention the professional presentations by TV networks for advertisers and media agencies.
The iPad helps TV to innovate. Good promotion for the iPad too. Since TV is more and more a double screen experience, this CBS app (which is a brilliant first) will probably - and hopefully - be followed by other networks.